Weather: Fine, Course: Dry May 25, 1996
Schumacher's team mate Naoki Hattori marked fastest time 1:16.223 in first qualifying session. Then he run as final driver in Special Stage after Schumacher marked fastest time in previous attack. Hattori marked 1:16.128, but he couldn't broke team mate's time.
Japanese young driver Shinji Nakano in domestic F3000 car Dome F104i Mugen. 1995 German F3 Champion Norberto Fontana from Argentina will start from fifth grid, followed by 1994 All Japan F3000 Champion Marco Apicella in Reynard 95D Judd will start from third grid. Italian veteran Apicella and Young Japanese Shinji Nakano are test drivers for Japanese Formula One car Dome F105 Mugen. Japanese veteran Kazuyoshi Hoshino, the most favorite driver of Ferrari Formula One driver Eddie Irvine and winner of first Formula Nippon (former F3000) race at Suzuka, will start from sixth grid.
1995 F3000 Champion Toshio Suzuki, crashed in NASCAR Grand National Series race at Nazares Raceway on last Sunday, was OK to drive for Formula Nippon and marked 18th time. He was transported to hospital after incident at his first stock car and oval race because of possiblity of head injury.
Qualifying:
All Japan Championship, Formula Nippon Rd.3, at Fuji International
Speedway: (4.470km)
May 25, 1996. Weather: Fine, Course: Dry.
Po No Driver Car Engine Time Lap km/h
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1 24 Naoki Hattori (J) Reynard 96D Mugen 1'16.098 20 211.464
2 25 Ralf Schumacher (D) Reynard 96D Mugen 1'16.223 23 211.117
3 5 Marco Apicella (I) Reynard 95D Judd 1'16.282 15 210.954
4 10 Norberto Fontana (RA) Lola T95/51 Mugen 1'16.356 23 210.750
5 19 Kazuyoshi Hoshino (J) Lola T96/95 Mugen 1'16.407 24 210.609
6 8 Shinji Nakano (J) Dome F104i Mugen 1'16.471 18 210.433
--------[Above: Went to Special Stage]-------------------------------
7 9 Pedoro De La Rosa (E) Lola T96/51 Mugen 1'16.672 23 209.881
8 55 Katsutomo Kaneiishi(J) Reynard 95D Mugen 1'16.775 17 209.599
9 6 Hidetoshi Mitsusada(J) Lola T94/50 Judd 1'16.923 17 209.196
10 64 Toranosuke Takagi (J) Reynard 96D Mugen 1'16.950 18 209.123
11 7 Masami Kageyama (J) Lola T95/50 Mugen 1'17.063 21 208.816
12 27 Masahiko Kageyama (J) Reynard 95D Mugen 1'17.119 12 208.665
13 2 Katsumi Yamamoto (J) Dome104i Mugen 1'17.264 25 208.273
14 56 Satoshi Motoyama (J) Reynard 95D Mugen 1'17.419 20 207.856
15 65 Takuya Kurosawa (J) Reynard 96D Mugen 1'17.463 22 207.738
16 31 Hideki Okada (J) Lola T95 Mugen 1'17.466 8 207.730
17 20 Andrew G.Scott (GB) Reynard 96D Mugen 1'17.513 16 207.604
18 1 Toshio Suzuki (J) Lola T96/94 Mugen 1'17.604 18 207.360
19 21 Michael Krumm (D) Reynard 95D Mugen 1'18.262 18 205.617
20 30 Eiichi Tajima (J) Lola T94 Mugen 1'18.570 13 204.811
21 17 Taichiro Onishi (J) Lola T94/50 Mugen 1'18.609 19 204.709
22 28 Masahiko Kondo (J) Reynard 94D Mugen 1'18.872 17 204.027
23 12 Yukihiro Hane (J) Lola T94/50 Mugen 1'19.166 20 203.269
24 72 Atsushi Kawamoto (J) Lola T93 DFV 1'19.557 18 202.270
25 73 Tesuji Tamanaka (J) Lola T93 DFV 1'20.701 15 199.403
26 15 Masao Yamada (J) Lola T93 Mugen 1'22.616 18 194.781
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Special Stage: for Top 6 Grids.
Po No Driver Car Engine Time Lap km/h
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1 25 Ralf Schumacher (D) Reynard 96D Mugen 1'15.918 5 211.966
2 24 Naoki Hattori (J) Reynard 96D Mugen 1'16.128 5 211.381
3 8 Shinji Nakano (J) Dome F104i Mugen 1'16.269 5 210.990
4 10 Norberto Fontana (RA) Lola T95/51 Mugen 1'16.408 5 210.606
5 19 Kazuyoshi Hoshino (J) Lola T96/95 Mugen 1'16.543 5 210.235
6 5 Marco Apicella (I) Reynard 95D Judd 1'16.665 5 209.900
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Data: Fuji International Speedway via NIFTY-Serve Auto Racing Forum.
RIJ-Mitsuru Sugaya/Tokyo,